Quick Hits

*** The National Treasury Employees Union won a round in a long-running battle with the Department of Health and Human Services. An independent arbitrator ruled that HHS had improperly put into place six provisions of a new contract – including rollbacks to telework and official time – before that new contract was finalized. HHS was acting on the terms of an order from the Federal Service Impasses Panel but the arbitrator ruled that the agency violated the law by not holding off until an "integrated and complete" agreement was concluded.

*** The Department of Defense estimates that a spectrum sharing plan involving frequencies in the 3550-3650 MHz Band will cost the department just under $100 million. The estimate was included in a letter from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC plans to hold an auction for the spectrum as part of the move to allocate bandwidth for 5G services.